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his soul, the excellency of religion, and the necessity of an interest in Christ, before many other children leave their diversions. God, who had the first and best of his time, happily preserved him from those vices and follies into which young people too frequently run, and gave him an early dread of ensuaring diversions, and a loose behaviour. He did not dare to strain his conscience, as it respected the rules and precepts of the law of God; but readily yielded to the force of prudent counsel, and wise example; and happily preserved his innocence from the evil impressions of sensible objects. We take the more notice of this, because a little before his death, he blessed God for the advantages of a religious education, and in some serious conversation with his father observed, that as long as he could remember any thing, he recollected that he had a high regard for God, and for spiritual and eternal things. Such was the happy dawn of this young man's moral and Christian character!

His father intending him for the ministry, which was the bent of his own inclination, placed him under the care of suitable tutors, in London. His advantages in this respect will be duly appreciated by those who are acquainted with the respectable characters of the learned Mr. John Eames, and Dr Thomas Ridgley, who directed his youthful studies. Under their instructions he made suitable improvements, and had the advantage of his father's immediate inspection. After spending a sufficient time in preparatory study, he entered upon his public work, in the year 1727, with the full consent and approbation of several London ministers. The death of that excellent person Mr. William Tong, prepared the way for his settlement in a station of considerable importance. Mr. Warren, of Coventry; and Mr. Waldron, of Ottery St. Mary, Devon, having each declined an invitation to be co-pastor with Mr. Newman, Sen. at Salters'-Hall, his son, Mr. Samuel Newman, was unanimously fixed in the assistant's office, in 1728. This situation he held with great credit to himself, and acceptance to the people, for

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about seven years, when he was removed by an untimely death, on the 31st of May, 1735, in the 29th year of his age. Dr. Obadiah Hughes delivered the address at his interment in Bunhill-fields, and the Rev. John Barker preached his funeral sermon at Salters'-Hall, from Psa. cxix. 96. I have seen an end of all perfection.

Thus early was the church deprived of the labours of this promising young minister. He possessed a very good capacity, a quick and lively apprehension, a faithful, and tenacious memory. As a preacher, his manner of address was warm, serious and affectionate; his subjects chiefly practical, and his thoughts and language remarkable for their justness and propriety. Aged and experienced Christians heard him with pleasure, and it pleased God to honour his ministry with great acceptance and success. Like other studious and ingenious persons, he did not rest in the first impressions of his education; but, as his judgment ripened, diligently pursued his inquiries after truth, and embraced it with a becoming freedom of mind. He highly valued, and diligently searched the holy scriptures, firmly believing their sufficiency and perfection; and had a becoming zeal for the weighty and important truths of the gospel. Of the grace of God, the mediation of Christ, and the standing influences of the Divine Spirit, he had the clearest apprehensions, and firmest persuasion. He had high, but not extravagant notions of Christian liberty; was a Protestant Dissenter upon the firmest principles, and had the cause of Nonconformity much at heart. His natural temper was very soft and affectionate, sympathising and peaceable; and his deportment and behaviour respectful and obliging to all. The day before he was seized with his last illness, he visited. some aged Christians, with whom he prayed and conversed in a very lively manner. The nature of his distemper was such as to preclude his expressing the state of his mind. But this he had done prior to his illness, when it was evident he had got above the fear of death: he had learned

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to talk of dying with pleasure, as the only way to a glorious immortality.*

JEREMIAH TIDCOMB.-The vacancy occasioned by the immature death of Mr. Samuel Newman, was speedily filled up by the Rev. Jeremiah Tidcomb, a very popular preacher, and pastor of a congregation at Ratcliff-cross. He continued afternoon preacher at Salters'-Hall, till his death, in 1740, a little before the decease of Mr. Newman, Sen. This latter event caused a double vacancy at Salters'Hall; which, however, was soon supplied by the Rev. John Barker, and his amiable colleague, the Rev. Francis Spilsbury, whose lives we shall proceed to lay before the

reader.

JOHN BARKER, an eminent Divine of the Presbyterian denomination, was born about the year 1682. We have no information by which to determine the place of his birth, the condition of his parents, or the circumstances of his early life. It is not improbable but he was in some way related to the Rev. Matthew Barker, a worthy nonconformist minister, who was ejected by the Act of Uniformity, from St. Leonard's, Eastcheap, and died March 25, 1698, considerably advanced in years: but of this we are not certain.+ After passing through the customary course of grammar-learning, he was placed for academical instruction, under the care of the celebrated Mr. Timothy Jollie, at Attercliffe, in Yorkshire; where he laid a good foundation of solid and useful learning, and profited not a little by the pious example of his excellent tutor, of whom he always spoke in terms of the highest respect.

When Mr. Barker had finished his academical course, he

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came to London, and passed his trials for the ministry, in the manner usual in those times, before some senior ministers in the metropolis. Shortly after, in 1709, he was chosen assistant preacher to a congregation of principal note, assembling in Crosby-square, under the pastoral charge of the eminent Dr. Benjamin Grosvenor.* Mr. Barker was now about twenty-six years of age, and the situation to which he had been directed by Providence, proved a source of no small happiness to him in after life. For though his connexion with the church in Crosby-square, was dissolved after a few years, Mr. Barker had an opportunity of forming an agreeable and useful friendship with some valuable persons, and particularly with Dr. Grosvenor, which only terminated in death. It was likewise of no small advantage to him, that, at his setting out in the ministry, he enjoyed the pattern, as well as advice of so accomplished a preacher as Dr. Grosvenor, whose graceful utterance, lively imagination, singular acumen, and warm devotion, procured him deserved reputation, and rendered him a fit model for a young preacher. During their connexion in the ministerial office, which lasted about six years, they lived in the most perfect harmony. The Doctor was of a friendly disposition, and always disposed to offices of kindness and generosity; and those who are acquainted with Mr. Barker's epistolary correspondence, will naturally conclude, that he was by no means deficient in those social feelings, upon which depend so much the happiness of man in his present state. After a lapse of more than forty years, Mr. Barker publicly declared, "that he still reviewed their former connexion with pleasure, and accounted it his honour."

In the month of June, 1714, it pleased God to remove to the world of happy spirits, the pious and excellent Mr. Matthew Henry, whose praise is in all our churches. By

• Mr. Barker's Sermon on the Death of Dr. Grosvenor, p. 32.

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his death the congregation in Mare-street, Hackney, became destitute of a pastor; but after a short interval, Mr. Barker was chosen to succeed him. His election, however, met with considerable opposition, and produced a large breach in the society; whence originated the congregation of the Gravel-pit meeting, in the same village.

Notwithstanding the discouragements under which Mr. Barker entered upon his charge, the success that attended his labours, soon restored the congregation; so that in a little time it became as large as under any of his predeces

sors.

He possessed a grave and manly deportment, an agreeable address, and his preaching, which was then mostly without notes, was so serious and striking, as could not fail to interest his hearers. During his earlier years, in the full enjoyment of health and mental vigour, his ministry was accompanied with a considerable share of popularity; nor did it forsake him even in old age, but he supported a good congregation to the last. When we speak of popular talents, however, as applied to Divines of the former age, we are not to be understood as including what is usually coinprehended in that term, at the present day. It is a fact too glaring to need an apology for stating it, that mankind are apt too frequently to be led astray by noise and novelty; and to sacrifice their judgment to their fancy. A disgusting familiarity, better adapted to the parlour than to the pulpit, with a strong propensity to drollery, appear to suit the frivolity of the age, rather than a solid scriptural strain of preaching, so much the glory of our forefathers the Puritans and Nonconformists. It is, doubtless, this depraved taste, in conjunction with some other causes, that has contributed to the decline of the Dissenting interest; nor can we expect a revival till a more just and rational taste shall prevail.

Not long after Mr. Barker's settlement at Hackney, the Dissenters became embroiled in those warm disputes con